Mean Hive

525 Views 15 Replies 9 Participants Last post by scmoose, 2 d ago

scmoose

Discussion Starter · 7 d ago

Not sure what's going on with this hive. I can't even sit on my back deck or walk in the yard. Got popped twice while in my driveway on the other side of a privacy fence. Then got popped while on the other side of the street throwing a baseball with my son. Nectar flow has pretty much stopped in my area. I went into the hives two days ago, noticed this particular hive had 4-5 charged queen cells, most at the bottom of one frame, one was in the middle of the frame. I found my marked queen and split her out with a few frames of the bees and resources into a nuc box. After I closed them up is when the aggressive behavior has gotten out of control. This hive has always been a little hot, but its ridiculous now, even the dogs are scared to go out back. I'm worried they will start to aggravate my neighbors. I'm a couple days away from doing something drastic with the hive. Any suggestions?

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NUBE

· #2 · 7 d ago

You can split them again. They may calm back down a bit once they have a mated Queen come back, but, in the meantime, weakening them may be your best option.

The nectar flow has been strange this year. Traditionally, they’d be going gangbusters right now, but I actually had to pull honey and start feeding a few hives last weekend as the bees were beginning to dig into their stores. Dearth can make the bees a bit aggressive, as can being queenless. The two conditions, combined, can definitely make for an ill-tempered colony.

Reactions: 1

scmoose

Discussion Starter · #3 · 7 d ago

NUBE said:
You can split them again. They may calm back down a bit once they have a mated Queen come back, but, in the meantime, weakening them may be your best option.

The nectar flow has been strange this year. Traditionally, they’d be going gangbusters right now, but I actually had to pull honey and start feeding a few hives last weekend as the bees were beginning to dig into their stores. Dearth can make the bees a bit aggressive, as can being queenless. The two conditions, combined, can definitely make for an ill-tempered colony.

I left a partial frame out that had a little honey on it in my yard and the hives demolished it in hours so I'm assuming that's a sure sign the flow is over. I need to pull suppers and feed as well so that they don't eat everything up. When I went in two days ago most of the supers weren't capped but had a bunch of nectar in them. I bought a refractometer to check moisture content so see if I can go ahead and extract the uncapped frames. If they are still too wet, I will try to dry them first. If they don't calm down a bit, I will have to move this hive somewhere away from my yard.

Reactions: 1

queensapiary

· #4 · 7 d ago (Edited)

Sometimes you just run into some aggressive genetics, then they amp up when the hive is stressed. Clearly something is going on with your hive since they are trying to re-queen. It's also possible the hive is being harassed at night by critters and is, as a result, amped up.

If it were me, I'd suit up head to toe, get in there, find the queen, kill her, and re-queen that hive with a known queen from a reputable breeder while wiping out all those queen cells, no need to carry forward those genetics.

scmoose

Discussion Starter · #5 · 6 d ago

How late in the season can you requeen a hive with a laying purchased queen. Im in central NC.

Oldtimer

· #6 · 6 d ago

In my view, such a hive is nothing but a problem and the strain should be eradicated. Problem is, you now potentially have 2 of them.

Me, I would requeen the split you made where you know where the queen is, then wait for the one with queen cells to sort itself out one way of another with a laying queen, so you can requeen that one also.

Get the queen somewhere different from where you got the last one.

Reactions: 1

scmoose

Discussion Starter · #7 · 6 d ago

Just got popped above my eye brow cooking hamburgers. A flame thrower may be in their future.

AHudd

· #8 · 6 d ago

scmoose said:
Just got popped above my eye brow cooking hamburgers. A flame thrower may be in their future.

Or a nice bubble bath.

Alex

Reactions: 3

scmoose

Discussion Starter · #9 · 6 d ago

Just secured a place to put them. I’ll give them a few more days to see what happens when one of these Queen cells hatch.

NUBE

· #10 · 6 d ago

scmoose said:
How late in the season can you requeen a hive with a laying purchased queen. Im in central NC.

You got plenty of time to requeen. I just requeened 2 yesterday. Of relevance to this thread, they were my two most defensive hives. The only thing that would give me pause for requeening later in the year would be the quality of the Queen. Queens are often harder to source from reputable dealers once you get past June.

Reactions: 1

elmer_fud

· #11 · 6 d ago

scmoose said:
How late in the season can you requeen a hive with a laying purchased queen. Im in central NC.

Around here I think you could requeen into august if you needed to. I think I have had a queen raised in a split that late in the year that started laying fine. I suspect your area is not terribly differnt.

warp1

· #12 · 6 d ago

Agree...can requeen late in the season....Only issue is the mating flight. Plenty of drones but also lots of dragon flies and other predators. My return numbers drop off a lot after June. If needed, I should have plenty of queens this fall if you have trouble sourcing. I'm in Wade, down near Fayetteville.

Reactions: 1

scmoose

Discussion Starter · #13 · 5 d ago

warp1 said:
Agree...can requeen late in the season....Only issue is the mating flight. Plenty of drones but also lots of dragon flies and other predators. My return numbers drop off a lot after June. If needed, I should have plenty of queens this fall if you have trouble sourcing. I'm in Wade, down near Fayetteville.

Thanks, Im right up the road in Fuquay from you. I think I'm determined to requeen and should use the fact that I took the queen out three days ago to do it. Trying to talk myself into going back in the box when I get home from work and taking out all of the queen cells, hopefully none of them hatched in the last couple of days, there were a few capped queen cells in there. Then I'll go back in a few more days from now to make sure there aren't any more cells in there then either try to find a frame of eggs from another one of my hives or buy a mated queen.

Reactions: 1

RNSwans

· #14 · 5 d ago

You are not kidding when you say flow was crazy this year. I am in SC, and most of my honey thus year came in february. 4 hives mire than filled a super of honey in just the last half of february. Then, whoosh, march hit and it was over?

Tarheeler

· #15 · 4 d ago

Requeen. Still gonna take 4 or 5 weeks to see alot better behavior

Reactions: 1

scmoose

Discussion Starter · #16 · 2 d ago

Hive was requeened yesterday, along with the split I made when I pulled original queen out. We will see what happens.

Reactions: 4

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